"All your life every man has wanted to be a cowboy.
Why play Wall Street and die young when you can play cowboy and never die?"
- Will Rogers, July 10, 1931
|
Richard is a writer and a cowboy who loves working with horses and cattle. Richard Allen Beal (68) and his family live near Santa Fe, New Mexico in the town of Lamy (population 218) overlooking the beautiful Galisteo Basin. Loving wife Kathy is a contemporary visual artist, photographer, Interfaith Minister, and Reiki Master. She's also the Chief Financial Officer for Silicon Valley entrepreneur Eric Hahn and Controller for the startup company PayNearMe. |
Richard has two grown children: fantastic son Andrew who had our first granddaughter, Rebekah Elizabeth.
Andrew lives in Salt Lake City, Utah where he is Executive Director of Hyperbaric Medicine for the Salt Lake Medical Regional Center. He also has completed training as
a professional diver, with a medical specialty, at the College of Oceaneering in Long Beach,
California. He has a BS in Behavioral Science and is finishing an MBA program.
Beautiful daughter Chandra lives in San Diego, California. She's
a talented writer who wrote and published the popular books Splash Across Texas, The Relaxed Rabbit, and a new book on the
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with Richard.
Chandra has a very successful publishing company, La Luna Publishing, writes for many publications and web sites, and recently published a DVD Massage Techniques for Your Companion Rabbit. She also is a massage therapist who works on both people and animals and a yoga teacher. She has a Liberal Arts BA degree.
Younger brother John is a very
successful composer and motion picture advertising producer who lives with wife Helene in Toluca Lake, California. |
Richard is past President for the University of California Santa Cruz's Friends of the Long Marine Laboratory,
is on the Board of Directors for the Richard and Kathy Beal Family Fund and volunteers at the Santa Fe Food Depot.
He is former President of Horse Power Protection Projects, a Certified Horse Professional with the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association, a founding member of the Santa Fe Silver & Saddles Polo Club,
and is active in the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association. He also is a volunteer with the National Day of the Cowboy organization.
Richard has an Internet store featuring quality authentic cowboy belt buckles, Beal's Cowboy Buckles, and writes a blog about the cowboy lifestyle.
|
Free time is spent writing non-fiction books like his best selling Highway 17: The Road to Santa Cruz and the new Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - The Early Years, Never A Dull Moment,
training and riding horses,
collecting glass and contemporary art, participating at the Del Norte Gun Club, and
supporting community organizations.
|
Richard worked in the computer industry for 30 years with a variety of Silicon Valley institutions like
Stanford University and Apple
Computer, was a Vice President at Internet pioneering company Netscape Communications, and finished his career working with
startup companies and venture capitalists like Silver Lake Partners and The Barksdale Group.
Richard and Kathy also own a business called The Pacific Group for some of their professional activities.
|
During the mid-60s Richard served as a Captain in the United States Air Force
and in the 70s worked with the United Farmworkers Union as an organizer,
was involved in developing support centers for the homeless in Los Angeles and Pasadena,
led a Christian commune dedicated to community improvement called Footsteps,
and was a Manager at the Center for Employment Training
which provides free training and job placement for the disadvantaged.
|
| Richard has a BS degree from UCLA in International Finance, an MS in Sociology from the University of Missouri, and a Masters of Divinity degree in Theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary. Today he studies and tries to practice Buddhism. |
What might surprise you about Richard:
"I believe in reincarnation and in my next life I'd like to be
the Lone Ranger"